I am so proud that this man is leading my country. I have been on this planet for 38 years and never once have I felt so proud of a politician, so connected to his message, so happy to hear him speak.

I think the impressive thing about the speech was the scope of the discussion. Perhaps the most persuasive part of the speech was the part about 9/11 and Al-Qaeda. I think it is amazing that he very coolly took apart the whole Al-Qaeda rhetoric with the sheer evil of what they did -- and right in the middle of a Muslim country. That was very impressive: look, this is why we acted the way we did, both wrongly and rightly. I disagree completely with the approach (they should never have turned these terrorists into warriors, something Obama might have said, just to cut them down further to size), but I think it was a brilliant piece of forensic rhetoric. And in fact the whole speech was an exercise in forensics, which Obama does better than anyone else in the world -- his race speech was like this one. These are the facts we have to deal with: now let's work with them.

It is his basic rhetorical strategy, and we will see how it plays out.

Jews aren't even human beings you need to understand this. It would be as if you were talking to a rat or a bug.

because he can not explain away america's past. worse, he doesn't want to change it.

but he's only a politician, you know. an american idol, with this year's song. the wars go on, the support of dictatorships goes on (not least egypt's mubarak - a man on america's payroll for many years ), and this very bright lawyer puts a lovely spin on the crimes of america. changes nothing, though: americans are already noticing that under the words is a reality quite like the that of bush/cheney.

the cycle of suspicion will end when some american president explains that murdering prime ministers, bombing civilians, and rewarding torturers is ended, and punishes those who did these things. until this happens, suspicion of american motives and morality is solidly founded.

the isrealis want the war to stop, because they have what they want, and suspect further conflict may begin to turn the tide. so too with obama: he wants to stop conflict here because the future looks less rosy. but the current losers are not done, they too see hope that the tide is turning.

obama is talking to america, more than to the middle east. fools are impressed, the ignorant admire, and he is the 'great peace-maker', by visible intent at least. but there is no content, nor can be. reality must be addressed first, and if he knows it, he dare not say it. so america's policies will sail on, ever less effective as the economic support for militarism fails.

of somebody who doesn't lie to me. Obama, unfortunately, doesn't qualify.

Contributing nil

To the discussion

He's mentally ill

And craving attention

It doesn't matter what some Jew liars claim it says.

Anyone notice that Salon's text of the speech cut off the last couple of sentences? What's up with that?

It should end

"The Talmud tells us: "The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace."

The Holy Bible tells us, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."

The people of the world can live together in peace. We know that is God's vision. Now, that must be our work here on Earth. Thank you. And may God's peace be upon you."

By your twisted logic the entire Arab world is mouthing hate speech. It's simply the truth and it's about time President Obama acknowledged it as such. It's about time America acknowledged it as such. Say what you will but facts are facts and the sooner the mideast is rid of them the better. However that happens I leave up smarter people than I, like President Obama.

How much utter insanity out of Obama's mouth can we stand?

It's not the first linguistic double-take we've had.

Colin Powell spoke Yiddish in Israel, and when Sadat first visited, wasn't he assigned an aide about the rank of Colonel with a Ph.D. in Arabic?

I keep listening for more Arabic to enter the NYC street culture. A little has started.

The media and some of the punditocracy in Israel are freaking out slightly, but I think they'll calm down. Except the settlers, who have been and will continue to freak.

I admit it was a bit of a shock to hear a POTUS say "asalam aleikum," and say it well. But I realized that it must have been shocking for Arabs to hear Bush and Clinton say things in Hebrew.

Obama's speech may be the right kind of start to an intelligent dialogue that's been a long time coming -- say over 1000 years.

One speech isn't going to do it, but the right kind of speech could start the conversation going among intelligent, educated people of good will.

The dar al-Islam values its cultivated past and hopes to exceed it. I suspect that it's something the West needs to learn. I see in Obama's speech that he took it all the way up to the Reconquista and beyond (when things went really bad): that was a master stroke, showing he knew what the history was.

I sometimes think that the one good thing that MAY have come out of the first Gulf War was that suddenly everyone in the States knew the distinction between Sunni and Shi'ite, and dimly perceived Wahabi was tough. We've learned a lot more since then: perhaps not the right things, and certainly not in the right way.

If there's haters and fools on both sides, why not people of good will? Make the convivencia live again -- now that's a good idea!

Can Salon please cut this guy off? No matter what one may think of Israeli policies and actions, references to "damn jews" are hate speech. They are meant to incite and should not be allowed in a public discourse.

Great speech, but can either side move very far away from the present? It'll take a lot of good will from both sides. The right wing blogs in the US, as well as OBL aren't impressed; that's a good thing, but they are still road blocks to peace.